a geologist bakes

July 13, 2016August 17, 2016

Eating Myself Out Of House And Home

Guess what? The poxy world is at me again. I don’t mean to be a complete moan every week but I’ve been mighty stressed the last few weeks. Anyway, the latest issue is some fecking B@$£@&d is counter-offering on the house I want. I want is a gargantuan under statement. It’s deadly. A bit of an ugly duckling in it’s current state but it has a huge (and wild) garden, tons of potential to extend and only minutes from my folks.

But these other ‘people’ are forcing us closer and closer to an unhelpful amount that would mean we wouldn’t be able to do almost any of the renovations we’d like/ need to do.

I can feel the swell of anyone reading this thinking ‘the state of your one’. I know I’m in a wonderfully privileged position to even be looking at buying a house but regardless.

Ugh.

My camera is still sick too so photos this week are brought to you by my smart phone.

The title of this post and the birth of this recipe is my idea to eat our way through all the random stuff left in our cupboards. An idea, I hope, that will make me come up with a few new ideas but also cut down on packing.

So this week we’re having melty, white and dark chocolate and raspberry filo parcels. Nice, ay? Happily, these wonders only take a few minutes to make, you can keep most all the ingredients in the cupboard or freezer and so lend themselves to an emergency dessert. Always useful to have in the repertoire.

I might add they can be made in advance.

They’re not healthy though, seeing as they’re built by butter, but they are relatively low in sugar. That’s my new thing. I’m more than fairly certain that I am actually addicted to sugar. It has never bothered me before but of late I’ve been having some almighty sugar crashes and I’m craving sugar hits all the time. So I’m doing my best to cut down on the mad sugary things.

When I had gestational diabetes, the nutritionist said that you can train your palette to be happy with less sugar. So that is what I’m aiming for. Until I get distracted.

Oven temperature 200 Celsius

Frozen Filo pastry 1 packet

Butter 50g

Chocolate – I used milkybar white chocolate and dark chocolate but go nuts use whatever you fancy yourself. Milk chocolate would be lovely too.

Raspberries – again you can use anything you want; blueberries, strawberries, etc.

Demerera sugar a few pinches

Icing sugar – this is optional and mostly just to make them look pretty

Defrost the filo pastry by either putting it in the fridge the night before or using the microwave. The main thing to keep in mind is to not let the pastry dry out or it’s never going to work so if using the microwave put a damp tea-towel over it.

Line a baking tray with baking parchment and preheat the oven.

Now. Melt the butter.

Unfold the pastry.

I should also mention that the shape of these beasties is also up to you. I chose spring roll shape. But whatever shape you decide upon all you’ll need is three layers of filo with melted butter between each layer.

The butter acts as glue so bear that in mind if you fancy a more complex shape.

Cut the pastry into rectangles of about 10cm x 25cm.

rectangular

Place one rectangle down on a clean surface. Paint melted butter evenly over it with a pastry brush.

Place a second rectangle on top and brush that one with butter.

buttery

Put on a third and final rectangle.

Break a few pieces of milkybar and dark chocolate onto the rectangle. Place it in a line parallel to the short axis about 1cm from the edge of the pastry.

Pop on a few raspberries.

remember you need to be able to roll the filling, so take it easy

Brush the rest of the pastry, that isn’t covered in chocolate and raspberries, with some more butter and then roll up the rectangle, trying your best to tuck in the edge bits to (to stop the filling escaping).

Carefully place it on the parchment and brush with yet more melted butter sprinkle with a pinch of demerera sugar.

rolled and lovely

Repeat till you run out of pastry or get bored.

If you are making these for later then wrap the tray in cling film and keep them in the fridge till ready to go.

Bake for 10 – 12mins (or 17mins if straight from the fridge) till crispy, golden and delicious. You’ll do well to let them cool down for about 7mins to avoid first degree burns to your mouth. If you serve icecream with them then that should alleviate some of the pain from the burns.